Feeling restless, Emory couldn't just lounge around and wait for them to arrive, so she began searching for a particular crew member. Yet, every place she checked, she quickly exited because who she was looking for wasn't there. Finally, back in the cargo hold, Emory found a muscular girl with bright blue spikey hair.
"Mags," Emory called, "Where have you been hiding? I've been looking for you everywhere."
"I just wanted to recheck our supplies. I'm still surprised you brought me along here. I mean, I'll help and build whatever you need me to, but I'm a very weak caster," Mags replied in her burly voice.
Emory laughed, "Stop downplaying your future contributions. If I can master this technique I'm working on, your work could change everything."
"And until then?" Mags prodded, "We don't have a lot of equipment to be made or materials to make them either."
"I'm hoping to channel your creativity in a different way. Can you bring your sketchbook and meet me in my quarters?" Emory asked. Mags raised one eyebrow before nodding and walking out of the hold with Emory following close behind. A few minutes later, Mags entered Emory's quarters to find the ginger girl surrounded by papers and mini workstations, each with a different purpose.
Mags joked, "A couple weeks trapped in a room has turned you a little crazy, hasn't it?" Emory looked up from a large grimoire she was reading and anxiously sighed.
"It's not that bad," Emory protested, "To the untrained eye, this looks like chaos, but I have a system. A spread out one."
"That's what people who have a problem say," Mags remarked out of the corner of her mouth to which Emory just rolled her eyes.
Emory huffed, "Do you want to see what projects I had in mind?" Mags made her way through the mess to where Emory was standing before taking a moment to better inspect her surroundings.
"What did you have in mind?" Mags questioned as she tried to make sense of the handwritten notes around her, "As I said before, I'm happy to help where I can." Emory closed the oversized book and pushed it to the side as she laid some rudimentary sketches on the table where it had been.
"What do you think of these? I want to fortify the FOB as much as possible," Emory fanned the designs out so Mags could see them all. The forger picked up each sheet of paper and carefully examined the plans, whispering to herself as she did.
"These are actually well thought out," Mags finally responded as she finished looking at the last one, "But I'm confused. If you already have all these planned out, what do you need my help with?"
Emory shook her head, "These are just starting points, and as I'm sure you noticed, some of my ideas are very impractical. I'm hoping you can fix them to be effective. And this is just the tip of the iceberg."
"I can fix these up to be more practical, I suppose. Although, I wish you would have shared this with me earlier on the trip. What else do you have in mind?" Mags smacked her lips and popped several bubbles of chewing gum as her face scrunched up.
"I'd like to push you to be a master crafter, instead of just a forger," Emory explained, "It will be more helpful for the squad and will also develop new skills for you. Instead of heavy armor, we can use leather armor from the beasts on this planet, for example."
Mags glared, "You know why you frustrate me so much? Because your argument isn't wrong. Fine, I can learn some other crafting techniques." While Mags did have some experience working with other materials besides metal, she much preferred the latter. Not only was it more valued in the current world, but it was also in greater demand than forming leather or jewelry. Yet master crafters, those select individuals who create masterworks of metal, hide, and gem, were very rare since it took years of practice and gobs of talent. To even suggest that someone could become one of these masters was either flattery or extremely high praise.
"Thank you," Emory smiled, "Do you have time for one more thing to talk through? I just want your thoughts on the special project I originally told you about."
"I assume this is some sort of enchantment question. Fire away," Mags sighed.
"First, is the process for enchanting different if it's not general or sphere magik?" Emory asked, "Second, what would be the most universal item that you could forge? I mean an item that anyone could carry, regardless of what sphere they had or how they fought."
Mags had a confused look on her face as she answered, "Do you mean like teleportation or telepathy? Honestly, I'm not sure; that sort of forging only happens in the Council families. I would guess it's the same process as normal, but I don't know for sure. The second question is easy: a ring. However, a ring is also the least forged item because you can't use it to cast the vast majority of spells."
"I expected that," Emory sighed, "Well, we're just going to have to try and figure it out then. Thank you for all your help, Mags." Mags collected all the papers and nodded before leaving the room. With the room empty and time to burn, Emory started picking up and organizing her room. She stopped several times, always having found some tiny piece of information she hadn't considered before, so it took a few hours to clean the area. When she was done, she got a snack from one of the dispensers only to quickly disappear in her quarters again.
While sitting at her desk, she called out, "Jask, how long until arrival?"
"Touchdown will be in thirteen hours and seven minutes," Jask chimed over the speaker, "Preparation tasks have been marked complete by all designated personnel."
"I'm going to take a nap then. Jask, message the whole squad to rest until two hours before touchdown. Please wake me up at that time," Emory relayed as she walked to the bed and laid down. Jask did as he was instructed before dimming the lights in Emory's room.